The purpose of Command of the Grill week is to promote the book “Command of the Grill”, whose proceeds benefit charities that support Marines. I’m not making any money off of this, and anything made from traffic during the month of November will be donated to Toys for Tots. You can read more here, or follow this link to purchase your own copy. This is a really easy way to support our troops. Semper Fi!

Combat Steaks is going to be another favorite, because it’s the second recipe I’ve done which is available for free on Weber’s Command of the grill site.

I hate to say the same thing over and over, but man, is this a tasty steak! The stuff on top of it is portabello mushrooms, which were cooked with garlic, butter and red wine. They really add to the flavor of the steak.

This recipe took first place at MCB Camp Pendleton. Colonel Stewart Navarre came up with the recipe, and it is just outstanding!

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Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out. I started posting on Sunday, and Sunday night, my youngest started getting sick. This turned out to be the classic 2 symptom stomach virus. Since I’m sure that everyone has had a stomach virus, I bet you can guess the 2 symptoms. He started feeling better Monday evening.

Of course, that was mere hours before my oldest started with the same thing.

Then lo and behold, Tuesday comes around, and I’m sick with those two symptoms.

So if you have been following along, I missed the Tuesday post, along with a couple of days of work.

Can we guess who was sick today, that’s right, my wife.

I know that we aren’t talking about food poisoning or anything, since we didn’t all get sick at the same time, and I’m sure that my wife will be better tomorrow.

I was supposed to cook the last recipe this week, but it just doesn’t look like that is going to happen. What I will more than likely do is cook the final recipe on Sunday or early next week, and post about it next week sometime.

My apologies, and thanks to everyone who has been reading along.

Posted in Rambling 4 Comments »

The purpose of Command of the Grill week is to promote the book “Command of the Grill”, whose proceeds benefit charities that support Marines. I’m not making any money off of this, and anything made from traffic during the month of November will be donated to Toys for Tots. You can read more here, or follow this link to purchase your own copy. This is a really easy way to support our troops. Semper Fi!

Shish Kabobs have been a grilling / campfire favorite since infantry used swords to cook their food over the evening fire because someone forgot the paper plates.

You can tell from the photo, that I cheat a little when it comes to shish kabobs. I usually put each food item on its own skewer, since like items tend to require the same amount of cooking. When the meal is served, I just take everything off and put it on a plate, then let everyone grab what they want.

I’m the lucky one because I love peppers, onions and mushrooms, so there’s usually some really good food left for me.

 You can also tell from the picture that I like to get my peppers and onions really charred up. I love the caramelization that you get when they can char up like that. The most surprising transformation is the red onions, which are really strong raw, become so very sweet and mild after they are cooked.

Usually when I cook shish kabobs, I go for the cheap meat, marinade it forever, and just live with the fact that its chewy. Not anymore. This meat was so delicious, I will have to think twice before not using New York strip again.

Sergeant James R. Cicero Jr. presented this as his entry for the MCB Camp Pendleton competition, and he was the first runner up. Nothing to be ashamed of, and the dish certainly wasn’t either.

The marinade on this was really straight forward, and the skewers were lined with Green and Red Bell peppers, a Red onion, and that glorious beef. Very, very tasty.

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The purpose of Command of the Grill week is to promote the book “Command of the Grill”, whose proceeds benefit charities that support Marines. I am not making any money off of this, and anything made from traffic during the month of November will be donated to Toys for Tots. You can read more here, or follow this link to purchase your own copy. This is a really easy way to support our troops. Semper Fi!

This recipe was the winner at the 29 Palms competition, and Captain Phillip Woodard is the hard charger who came up with it.

I figured that I would have to botch at least one of the recipes, and on this one, I actually cooked it just a wee bit too much. I usually shoot for medium rare, and this time it was more like well done. What can I say, nobody’s perfect.

The taste of this steak was really terrific! Even though I cooked it just little too much.

Capt Woodard’s philosophy is to get the steak as tender as he can, using a marinade.  The marinade had lemon juice, soy sauce, Worcestershire, brown sugar, and some other ingredients.

I know I said it once, but this was a really tasty steak. This recipe is going to be on of our favorites from here on out.

Posted in barbecue, Books, Charity, Command of the Grill, Grilling, Semper Fi No Comments »

The purpose of Command of the Grill week is to promote the book “Command of the Grill”, whose proceeds benefit charities that support Marines. I’m not making any money off of this, and anything made from traffic during the month of November will be donated to Toys for Tots. You can read more here, or follow this link to purchase your own copy. This is a really easy way to support our troops. Semper Fi!

This beautiful piece of meat is a Tri-tip roast. My understanding is that tri-tip is really only popular in parts of California. Luckily, probably because of the number of Californians that have moved to Colorado, tri-tip is available in my local grocery stores.

This particular tri-tip was lucky enough to be used for Gunny Steven Burkett’s “Hawaiian Island Barbecue Beef” recipe, which was the first runner up at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii competition.

I was lucky enough to have been stationed at MCB Hawaii Kaneohe Bay from 1993 to 1998, and I don’t think the Gunny was there cooking this beef, or I would probably know him personally.

 One of the keys to this particular recipe is the sauce. First you take some pineapple and roast it on the grill, then combine it with various ingredients, including one of my favorite ingredients, Srirachi chili sauce, and then puree everything.

The sauce is used to coat the meet in the indirect phase of cooking (more on that later in this post) and then later served with the meat.

The end result is not only something that tastes as delicious as it looks in these pictures, but it has just enough zip from the sauce to really accent the meat.

Just like with Disco’s recipe, this sauce is going to find its way onto many other dishes. Its already been on chicken. Really, that sauce is good!

I had mentioned that out of all the recipes I have done so far, only one of them has  not been worth the price of the book. Let me tell you, it isn’t this one.

This is so good, if I had tasted it, I would easily have paid $10 to get the recipe.

As I mentioned above, I am pretty new to tri-tip roasts. As a matter of fact, this one is the third one that I’ve cooked. One of the things that amazed me about this cut of meat is how easy it is to cook. Basically, you get your grill set up for 2 zones, one medium high, and the other no heat.

Place the roast on over the coals, getting a nice sear on it, for about 10 minutes, flipping it over one time. Then, place the roast over the section of the grill with no heat. Then cook it for about 15 minutes there, with the grill covered, flipping it one time.

That’s it. Let it rest for awhile, covered if foil, and then cut it up. About a third of mine never touched a plate. It went straight from the cutting board into my mouth.

Of course, if you aren’t the type of person who likes their meat rare, then you’ll probably want to cook it longer. You can see from that second picture, that the meat is a nice uniform color red, all the way through. The meat was so juicy I couldn’t believe it. Cut across the grain, the meat is really tender and easy to chew.

We loved this recipe, and it will come in handy when the grocery store puts tri-tips on sale. The Sauce is also going to become one of my staples.

Clicking on any of the pictures will open a larger, juicier version, suitable for a wallpaper.

Posted in barbecue, Books, Charity, Command of the Grill, Grilling, Semper Fi 2 Comments »